Creator of Project
Rich Holschuh
Rich Holschuh, our community partner, works with the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs and is a public liaison for the Elnu Abenaki Tribe. He also collaborates with other tribal groups and builds connections with businesses, local and state agencies, and public and private educational institutions. He is passionate about honoring the true story of the land we all live on, with a particular interest in the implications of the Land Grant Act.
Origin
This project was to give a voice to the indigenous community who have been displaced by the colonizing policies of the United States government. The University of Vermont is one of 112 land grant universities in the United States, which were established in three separate acts over a period of more than 130 years. We have decided to focus on the first of these acts, which was passed in 1862 and is arguably the most influential of the three in the context of impact on indigenous livelihoods. The act states that “each eligible state receive a total of 30,000 acres (120 km^2) of federal land, either within or contiguous to its boundaries, for each member of Congress the state had as of the census of 1860. This land, or the proceeds from its sale, was to be used toward establishing and funding the educational institutions described above.” The act provided that if no federal land was in the boundaries of the recipient state then a scrip was issued to provide land elsewhere to fund the institution.
The Problem
The Land Grant Act of 1862 led to the establishment of The University of Vermont and State Agricultural College. The effects, implications, and resolutions of this wholesale colonizing dispossession on indigenous peoples have never been investigated or broadly acknowledged.
Context
Background
There is a lack of information about how the Vermont Land Grant Act affected indigenous communities outside of Vermont. Initial search results detail the Land Grant Act as a basis for expanding and democratizing American education. This Act gave land to the states for the purpose of selling that land on the open market to raise funds in order to create opportunities for education and encourage settler occupation and development of Federal land. These searches did not share the story of the indigenous people that were displaced during these land confiscations and allocations. There is a large gap in knowledge regarding the identity of and impact upon these indigenous communities. The circumstances of their dispossession, the uses of their homelands afterward, and the implications today are also unacknowledged.
The land grant act of 1862
Justin Morrill was a Vermont Representative and Senator for 44 years. His most well-known contribution was the Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862, which seized land belonging to indigenous communities to fund the development of state agricultural schools throughout the United States. The Land Grant Act of 1862, was designed to give federal land to the states who could then sell this land in order to raise funds to endow the founding of agricultural universities and programs. Vermont Senator Justin Morrill was claimed to be the father of the act.
With no qualifying federal land within its borders and five congress members, Vermont was allocated 150,000 acres of land elsewhere in the continental United States. The land that Vermont was given was primarily located in the midwest. This land was procured as a direct result of the conflict, fraud and forced removal of tribal communities and people. Our community partner believes that the tribal communities that were originally on that land were displaced as a result of this Act.